South Africa Parliament Votes To Suspend Relations with Israel over Gaza Fighting
South Africa members of parliament have voted to close the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and to suspend all diplomatic relations.
The governing African National Congress – which dominates parliament – has long been critical of Israel and it supported the motion in parliament.
The motion called for the closure of the embassy and suspension of ties until Israel agrees to a ceasefire and commits to binding negotiations.
It was passed by 248 votes to 91.
Ahead of the vote in South Africa, Israel recalled its ambassador “for consultations” – a move it said followed the “the latest south African statements”.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently referred Israel to the international criminal court for potential war crimes and recalled South Africa’s diplomats from Israel.
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Ramaphosa has said his country believes Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Palestinian authorities have said more than 14,100 people have been killed in Israel’s air and ground assault since October 7.
The war in Gaza was triggered when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that authorities there said killed about 1,200 people.
The vote was held after Israel announced it was recalling Ambassador Eli Belotserkovsky from Pretoria for consultations.
The African country, which has not had an ambassador in Israel since 2018, has long backed the Palestinian cause for statehood.
Many Palestinian rights groups have drawn parallels between the Israeli occupation and South Africa’s decades-long apartheid regime.
In recent years, a growing number of international rights groups have said Israeli policies towards the Palestinians constitute the crime of apartheid, something that Israel firmly denies.
South Africa also hosted a virtual summit of BRICS nations on Tuesday. The group of emerging economies consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities” in Gaza.
As individual countries, we have demonstrated our grave concern at the death and destruction in Gaza,” Ramaphosa said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Let this meeting stand as a clarion call for us to combine our efforts and strengthen our actions to end this historical injustice. Let us work together to realise a just, peaceful and secure future for the people of both Palestine and Israel.
